(AN: Just as the door of Exodus is closing, I open another one! Welcome, friends and faithful alike, to my third [or fourth] fan-fiction about that ancient and noble history: yes, the Bible.)

(I would have gone on with my Waldense story, but as fictionpress is no longer functioning in a way that makes my writing easy, so that is currently on indefinite hold [along with other original stories] while I pen this new tale. It is set in the same "universe", if you will, as Joshua: King of Heaven - even down to calling Christ by His Hebrew name Joshua - and most of the characterizations are based off how I depicted them in that story [this one even starts out exactly where the last one left off].)

(Enjoy!)

Return to Jerusalem

Sivan, 31 A.D

They all looked on after Him, as if hoping to catch some final glimpse before He was gone from their lives. Yet the bright, shining Star had by now faded away and the day looked no different than it had hours ago, when the multitude first climbed this hill. Not even the shining beings who heralded His return were there anymore. It was like waking up from the greatest dream one had ever dreamed, and yet never wishing to rise up again. Yet rise they must.

One by one, they began to disperse. But one group, however, did not disperse. They were about one hundred and twenty strong: their number included eleven of His twelve original disciples - the twelfth was buried in a potter's field called the Field of Blood - the women who followed Him and gave free-will offerings to Him and the disciples, as well as the Seventy and many of their friends.

This group was back on their way to the Holy City, to their rented upper room.

"So, what do we do now?" John Bar-Zebedee asked Simeon Peter, the one most of them acknowledged as the leader of the disciples. "What's next? Do we start preaching the coming of the Kingdom?"

"Are you insane?" Thomas Didymus asked. "You saw the lengths the people of Jerusalem went with the Master. We can't just run out into the streets, like Elijah, screaming 'The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!'"

"Also," Simeon, an ex-zealot, interjected. "Weren't we to wait for the blessing of the Holy Spirit?"

"Yes, that's right!" Thomas replied. "The Ruach HaKodesh! We should wait for that."

"We will wait," Peter nodded. "Yet, there are many things we must do in the mean-time."

"Such as?" Andrew, Peter's brother, asked.

"Well, we need one more member," Peter said. "Judah is no more."

"No, I'm not!" Thaddaeus Lebbaeus, also called Judah, interjected.

"I meant the Traitor," Peter returned. "We need to keep our Judah's straight."

"Well, why?" Thaddaeus asked. "The Traitor is in Sheol, I am with you. I'm the only Judah left!"

"People will want to know what happened to Joshua," Nathanael stated. "Yes, I agree with you, Peter."

"But why do we need twelve?" Philip of Capernaum, a friend of Nathanael's and one of the Twelve, asked.

"Joshua told us," James, John's brother, replied. "That we would judge the Tribes of Israel in the Kingdom of Heaven."

"But we cannot do that," Peter concluded. "With only eleven."

The others nodded in realization, and continued on their way in silence. Peter walked at the head of the group, with James and Andrew close at hand. Nearby was John, with Miriam of Magdala and John's adopted mother Miriam Bat-Joachim, but many simply took to calling her Baruch Miriam, 'the Blessed'. The others kept a semi-loose group, talking among each other or enjoying the peace and quiet before they entered the city.

"Matthew?" James Bar-Alphaeus asked the ex-publican Levi Matthew. "Are you with us?"

Matthew, who had been staring off idly into the wilderness, turned when his name was being called.

"Oh, I was lost in my thoughts," Matthew replied.

"Tell us," Miriam of Magdala queried with interest.

"Probably another fulfilled prophecy of the elders and sages of blessed memory," Philip was interrupted by a general murmuring of "Peace be upon them" echoing through the group, as was the custom. "...as I was saying, that was fulfilled by our Master."

"Yes, and no," Matthew replied. "It's just that, well, He was...is the Messiah, the Anointed of the LORD. Yet, and I recall one of you mentioning something about this..." He pointed towards Peter, James and Andrew. "...He hailed from Nazareth."

"So?" Thomas asked Matthew. "Do you doubt that Joshua was the Messiah?"

Matthew saw Miriam of Magdala bite her lower lip to keep from laughing: he himself had to admit that Thomas doubted a little too much.

"No, I do not doubt," Matthew returned. "It's just Isaiah said that the region of Galilee was on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, not Judah. Is not the line of David that of the Messiah?"

"You are doubtful!" Thomas nigh shouted.

"I doubt not that Joshua is indeed what and who He said He was," Matthew said. "But there are many in Israel, good, honest sons of Abraham, who will not be as easily moved as we were."

"Let them be," James said. "Shake the dust of their towns off your feet. I remember the Baptizer said that JEHOVAH can make sons of Abraham from the very stones."

"Yet Joshua said that it was the will of His Father that none should be lost," Matthew said.

"Just what are you get at?" Miriam asked.

"I would, if it is possible," Matthew said. "Like permission to search the genealogies of the synagogues in Nazareth. Perhaps I can discover something that will prove to our people, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Joshua was indeed the son of David."

"It wouldn't be in Nazareth," Baruch Miriam stated.

"Why not?" Thomas asked. "He was Joshua of Nazareth, wasn't He?"

"Yes, He grew to manhood in Nazareth," Miriam the Elder replied. "But He wasn't born in Nazareth. He was born in Bethlehem."

"This is news indeed!" Nathanael stated. "I knew He was too good to come from Nazareth!"

This earned him a condescending look from Miriam of Magdala, for Miriam the Elder was a Nazarene.

"Then I should like to go to..." Matthew began, but was interrupted by Miriam waving her hand.

"It would not be there either," she said. "We were only visiting."

"Did you meet anyone there?" Matthew asked.

"Very few people who lived there," she returned. "But it's been so long, I doubt they'd even remember me. No, Joseph and I took Joshua to the Temple in Jerusalem on the eighth day, as per the Torah."

Matthew nodded. So, he thought, any circumcision records would be kept in the Temple archives. Of course, those were pretty much off-limits to anyone who was part of Joshua's ministry. Everyone in the Sanhedrin, it seemed, were out for the blood of Joshua's followers. They had few friends, though, but even they could not be asked to risk their safety for something that did not seem completely vital at the time.

"Joshua," he thought in prayer, then remembered. "Uh...JEHOVAH, may Your name be hallowed for ever. Hasten the day that the Kingdom of Heaven shall come. May Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Uh, may the out-pouring of the Ruach HaKodesh be soon, and, if it be Thy will, let me find some way to prove to the people of Israel that Your Son is indeed the Son of David, our Messiah. Forgive us our sins, even as we ourselves shall forgive others who have done likewise against us. Let us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. The power, the Kingdom and the glory be Thine forever, O LORD. Amen."

(AN: How was that? I'm definitely going to have to go back and clean up some mistakes made in Joshua - textual and cultural ones. After all, they were Jews, so I will liberally use Hebrew words and such. Of course, that will change around 34 AD, as the Gospel goes to the Gentiles, and therefore the Greek is more commonly used [and Christ's name will revert to the familiar Ieosus or Jesus].)

(For those who are not scholars of the Hebrew language, Sheol is a name for the grave [a place where the dead go], and Ruach HaKodesh is the "Holy Spirit". Sivan, also, refers to the month, being forty days after Nisan, on which occurred the Ascension. In the common tongue, roughly around June, since Passover [which they were celebrating at the Last Supper] would correspond to April/Nisan.)

(As you can tell, I'm forging a sub-plot about the writing of the Gospels, one where the authors named are actually writers of the work. I thought it would be an interesting something, in addition to what happens with the rest of our characters.)